Microsoft won't launch iPhone rival

Something tells me that Apple won't come out of this thinking they just dodged a bullet:

Microsoft will not launch a product that competes directly with Apple's iPhone, Chairman Bill Gates said in an interview with Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"No, we won't do that. In the so-called smart phone business we will concentrate solely on software with our Windows Mobile program," Gates was quoted as saying in the interview published on Wednesday.

"We have partnerships with a lot of device manufacturers from Samsung to Motorola and this variety brings us significantly more than if we would make our own mobile phone," he added.

I would just point out, however, that Gates is essentially leaving Microsoft in July, so the "we" there could go in a different direction once he's gone.